I've been surfing the forum for a bit now, and I've been trying to create a cheap, effecient, intelligent Shard rush deck. Before you start sprouting all the various board clearing available in SE, just take a look at my deck list first.
1 x Elementalis
4 x Fire Snake
4 x Spark
4 x Hellsteed
3 x Carniboar
3 x Dark Flayer
3 x DMT
4 x Shriek
3 x Shard Of Power
4 x Here be Monsters
4 x Blood Lust
1 x Soul Reaper
1 x Energy Discharge
1 x Eternal Renewal
Total: 39 Cards.
First and foremost, build it and try it out, its very efficient on many fronts.
Strategy
The strength in this deck is the ability to gain an early foothold against most Ally intensive decks, outrush mages and delay game changing armours.
Card Efficiency - Getting the most out of every card you play. How many creatures are required to take out an opponent? 3. So choose how many creatures to place, and when to place them. Shard usually takes out the life of most allies it faces, which is why this deck focuses on creatures which look docile, but turn into a raging force at the drop of a pin.
Getting out of the 1HP pitfall - There are three ways this deck can do that without "wasting a card",
- Turn 2, drop Carniboar
. Turn 3, Either drop DMT or cast shard to kill Puwen
- Casting the 2nd, 3rd, 4th Spark AFTER first spark is cast
- Using Elementalis
I did consider using Life Infusion
Here be Monsters is one of the most interesting cards in this deck. As almost none of the cards in the deck require 4cc, Here be Monsters can be played very often and effectively early. Need to destroy an item? Play 4 resource, cast shriek followed up by HBM. IMHO, this deck is really one of the few decks that can use HBM effectively as you almost never need to cross the 3-4 resource border, while it is critical for most decks to do so.
The goal of this deck? Early game domination, but don't throw everything for that one hit KO, especially when you know that your opponent has tons of ally screwing cards in his deck. Controlled aggression is the way to go, just remember, the magic number is 3.
When 3 characters hit the board, try not to give anymore than you require. The best thing about this deck is that 3 characters with 1dmg + shard + Blood Lust = 15dmg. Which means that you don't need more than 2 strikes with your deck to end MOST players.
The deck lacks in a weapon, mainly because I can't afford Dimensional Rippers + I don't like them as a weapon. I rather wait for the next version's set, I saw one that was pretty good.
All my orders are in priority, first/ second/ third.
Turn 1:
Choosing which one to resource: If you drew double shard/ Bad Santa
Try to get a Spark
If you have multiple Sparks in your hand, with shard, you have a great hand.
Turn 2:
Sac for Resource.
Cast 2 1cc ally / Cast 1 2cc ally
Attack with first char, get First Blood (dotaftw).
Turn 3:
Sac for Resource.
Now you need to see your hand and whether you need to shard or not. The best way is to see if you have many cards that will benefit from it that are in play, and in your hand. For example, Carniboar
If you managed to cast out 3 allies already at this point, now is the time to send a trademark 3^2=9 point smack across the opponent's face.
Turn 4:
This is where things get hard for this deck. Weapons are going to come now. But If you started second, don't Sac for Resource, and cast HBM, the worst card in SE according to polling.
If you started first, and you have all 3 allies still in play, just blood lust and go for your 15 slap (total dmg approximately 25).
If you got delayed, cast a few more allies to back up your team, like hellstead/DMT
Turn 5:
Your goal from now on is to keep them at the early game, with TBM keeping them down. Their card draw should be minimal, as shriek should handle them. Plus, most decks need to get to 5 resource to truly shine, so TBM works well by preventing that scenario, but that is not the main strength of this deck. The most important thing is to blast as much dmg as possible/take out as many cards as possible. Trust me, crippling blow on fire snack, good job Mr Gummy Worm. And Shriek the crap out of Evil Ascension.
You really, really hate all the cheap table wipes, but when that occurs, don't panic, you still have 2 cheap tricks up your sleeve. Very cheap.
When you're being screwed badly, you CAN try to feed the opponent's aggression with a few of your allies as you wait for Elementalis
Once he does, go for the Energy discharge and clear the board, and end this with one sweep.
And the worst case scenario card, which I used to cause a Boris
Advice/ Suggestions/ Flaming please.
21/11/11
Changed Deck List to:
(- 1 x Shriek
-1 x Eternal Renewal
+1 x Soul Reaper
+1 x Energy Discharge
+2 x Bad Santa
1 x Elementalis
4 x Fire Snake
4 x Spark
4 x Hellsteed
3 x Carniboar
3 x Dark Flayer
3 x DMT
3 x Shriek
3 x Shard Of Power
4 x Here be Monsters
4 x Blood Lust
2 x Soul Reaper
2 x Energy Discharge
4 x Bad Santa
Total: 44 Cards. (including hero)
Deck seems to be suffering when it loses gas, edited in 4 BS and one more ED, to give it a slightly better late game.
23/11/11
4 x Fire Snake
4 x Spark
4 x Hellsteed
3 x Carniboar
3 x Dark Flayer
3 x DMT
3 x Belladonna
3 x Shriek
4 x Shard Of Power
4 x Here be Monsters
4 x Blood Lust
2 x Soul Reaper
2 x Energy Discharge
4 x Bad Santa
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